Tears for a team: Barkley blue over lopsided Spurs-Utah series

While Spurs fans cheered, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and the rest of the TNT game commentators looked absolutely funereal when the cameras cut to them during half-time of the Jazz-Spurs game Wednesday night.

It’s not that they didn’t want to give the victorious Spurs their due. It was the inferior playing by Utah that seemed to make them glum.

Barkley, in particular, said he hoped that the “young” Utah team would at least win one game in the series, but the lopsided score, heavily in favor of San Antonio, filled him with doubts. “I always feel bad when a team gets swept. I just hope they (the Jazz) win a game.”
He elaborated: “Utah has a very young team and you wonder after a beating like this are they going to have the attitude to go home and win both of those games.”

After a bit, the rest of the broadcast team seemed to leave the pessimism to Barkley, however; they were more interested in slapping S.A.’s team on the back for such marvelous playing.

O’Neal (right), once again, stressed that the Spurs have all the right stuff to win the NBA championship.

“The San Antonio Spurs definitely have the blueprint on how to win the championship. They play well together, they’re focused and they don’t have any lapses.”

Tony Parker was the hero of the night, according to Kenny Smith: “Not too many players in the league can make you play slow, can make you play fast, just on what they do. He’s one of those guys and that’s a tough task.”

Smith (in photo below right) also laid the compliments on NBA Coach of the Year Gregg Popovich.

“The NBA players define the game. (It’s) not often when you see a team like San Antonio where the players don’t always define the game,” Smith said. He (Popovich) plugs in players who are different – from different backgrounds – and the system still works.”

His choice for most improved player of the season? The Spurs’ Danny Green. “I think (Lakers center) Andrew Bynum – Barkley’s pick — has a great case but he was always thought of as a great player,” Smith said, adding: “(Spurs guard) Danny Green was a guy that was on the cusp of getting cut from the NBA and now is on the most prolific basketball team as a starter.”